There is a tendency among wine enthusiasts to constantly refer to the beauty of vineyards and wine regions, but some of this I think comes from the fact that we feel so at home in these magical places that produce our favourite sustenance.

US: A legally blind barber was awarded $100,000 by a Massachusetts commission against discrimination after it says he was wrongly fired.

Some of the stranger stories from around the globe

Father’s Day is tomorrow so this week I want to focus on wines your dad will probably like. 

Point-To-Point racing returned to Tralee racecourse on Saturday as the North Kerry Harriers meeting took place at the now-defunct Ballybeggan Park venue.

South Africa’s election commission completed a vote count that confirms the ruling African National Congress as the winner but also shows the strengthening of prominent opposition groups, according to results today.

Leo Cullen may well be Leinster’s forwards coach in waiting but no one was willing to confirm as much yesterday as rumours linking the club to Kiwi hooker Quentin MacDonald met with the same non-committal stone wall.

Super XV outfit The Bulls have announced that Springbok full-back Zane Kirchner will join Leinster on a two-year deal at the end of the current season.

Paul Hopkins — awarded for writings on Africa, Asia and the Indian Ocean — describes a visit to the luxury Steenberg Hotel.

Gysbert Johannes Muller, to give the Ulster skipper his official moniker, reckons the Heineken Cup final at Twickenham on Saturday is the biggest game of his rugby life.

Wine tastings are always a revelation, and none more so than the one hosted by Lidl recently for people in the wine media to taste.

THE Niall Mellon Township Trust (NMTT) is on course to meet its target of housing 100,000 people in South Africa in the next number of months and will complete 3,500 homes this year.

BEFORE I landed in Maputo, the images of Mozambique I’d been toying with were predictable.

A BRITISH businessman conspired to have his Swedish bride murdered on their honeymoon in South Africa, it was alleged in court yesterday, in a sensational twist to an apparent robbery and shooting.

South African elections results released today show the African National Congress might have fallen short of winning its cherished two-thirds parliamentary majority.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress neared its aim of a two-thirds majority in elections today but lost power in the country’s richest province because of hostility from mixed-race voters.

JACOB ZUMA’S supporters danced and sang in the streets yesterday in celebration as partial results from South Africa’s parliamentary elections showed him in line to become the country’s next president.

GOLF tyro Rory McIlroy hopes to finish the year among the world’s top 50 and ensure his place at next year’s majors.

The ICC today announced that the Women’s World Cup qualifier event, scheduled to be staged in Lahore, Pakistan from February 18-24 2008, will now take place in South Africa instead.

Fires that have swept through parts of South Africa in recent days have killed at least 18 people and damaged power lines, crops, forests and grazing areas.

A Western Cape farm has been placed under quarantine and all 60 of its ostriches culled in a bid to contain a South African outbreak of avian influenza, the country's department of agriculture said today.

Three seriously-injured gold miners were brought to the surface today, a day after an earthquake trapped 38 men deep underground, killing one and leaving another missing.

An earthquake measuring five on the Richter scale shook parts of South Africa today and caused injuries and damage south west of Johannesburg.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney will not break off her 18-day holiday in South Africa to attend an emergency European Union meeting on the Asian crisis.

MILLIONS of enthusiastic South Africans queued to vote in their third post-apartheid election yesterday, with the African National Congress expected to return to power in a landslide.

South Africans vote in national elections for the third time today a mere decade after the country’s first vote to include all racial groups ended white minority rule.

Transport minister Dullah Omar, a leading human rights lawyer and anti-apartheid activist who was justice minister in South Africa’s first black-lead government, died today of cancer.

South Africa’s third all-race election will be held on April 14, President Thabo Mbeki announced in Parliament today.

A packed passenger train crashed through a barrier and ploughed into a wall today, injuring 29 people in Cape Town, South Africa.

A passenger train collided with a freight train and derailed, killing 10 people and injuring 49 outside Cape Town today, police said.